Set a Good Example
by Rachel Erica
Summary: Five-year-old Spongebob learns a lesson about obeying rules and setting a good example for others. This is just a light-hearted one-shot I wrote to practice some of the new fiction writing things I learned in my creative writing class. Nothing real serious. Rated K for some strong language.


**This is just a little project I did to practice my writing skills. I'm in a college creative writing class right now and I wanted to test out some of the new things I learned. This is just a little fluff; nothing real serious. Just some light-hearted familiar junk. Enjoy! **

Harold Squarepants sat in his favorite chair in his living room. His Sunday afternoon could not get any better, he thought. He had the house to himself; his wife was working her part-time and his son was spending the afternoon at his best little buddy's house. He sipped his beer and cheered loudly when his favorite baseball team made a double-base hit.

"Hell yeah!"

_rrring! Rrring! _

He sighed and set his beer down, and then reluctantly peeled himself from his chair. He stepped into the kitchen and answered the corded phone.

"Hello?"

"Harold?" A panic-stricken female voice came up on the other line.

"Margie? Hey, what's going on?"

"Oh Harold, please don't be mad...I was watching them from the window and...and I swear I only turned my back for a second..."

"What happened?"

"The boys...I can't find them! They just disappeared!"

Harold's face flushed. "What?!"

"One minute they were playing around in the backyard and the next second they were gone! I am so sorry! You gotta help me find them!"

"Okay, I'll be right there. They couldn't have gotten too far. I'll meet you at your house!"

"Okay. Hurry!"

Harold slammed the phone down and rushed out the front door, forgetting to shut off the TV.

"Oh dear Neptune, please be alright..." he said under his breath as he put the key in the ignition and abruptly pulled the boat out of the driveway in one swift motion.

Horror stories of small children being abducted from their backyards and their dead bodies being found in a ditch or a field somewhere ran through the father's mind. His heart beat faster with every devastating image that passed through his racing mind. Little Spongebob was his only child, and probably the only child he would ever have. If anything ever happened to him...that was a thought that Harold could not see the end of. He did not know what he would do. The thought of losing his favorite little boy was unimaginable.

His tires screeched faintly as he pulled into the Star family's driveway, nearly jumping out before coming to a full stop. Margie met him halfway.

"I told them not to leave the yard! I specifically told them!" Margie had tears in her eyes.

Harold gave her a comforting pat on the back.

"Just hop in, Marge, we'll find 'em."

She did just that, and the two concerned parents took off.

"It's just not like them to run off like this," Margie said.

"I know. Let's think: if they just walked off, where are two 5-year-old boys likely to go?"

"Well, Patrick would probably go somewhere with food, but he doesn't have any money, so I can't imagine he would do that. Then again, he wouldn't have exactly thought that through..."

"Well it certainly couldn't hurt to check the ice cream parlor up the road here."

Just as Harold was saying that, they passed by the park and a familiar flash of yellow and pink caught the corner of Margie's eye. She did a double-take and just missed her peripheral image.

"Oh God, Harold, go back to the park! I think I saw them!"

Harold pulled into the next driveway that came up and turned the boat around.

Sure enough, the boys were there at the park. They were innocently taking turns going down the big slide.

Harold parked the boat by the playground and breathed a sigh of relief after removing the key from the ignition. His relief was quickly replaced with frustration.

Margie pushed the door open with an angry force.

"Patrick Star! What do you think you're doing?!" she shouted.

He did not hear her. He was having too much fun on the slide.

Harold finally pushed his door open and slammed it shut.

Spongebob glanced over at the parking lot after hearing the door slam.

"Hey, that's my daddy!" he said to Patrick. "I wonder what he's doing here." He went down the slide one last time.

"Robert Squarepants! Come here right now!" he heard his father shout for the first time in his life.

"Sounds like you're in trouble, Spongebob," Patrick said.

"Patrick Star! Did you hear me?!"

"Oh...I guess I am too."

Spongebob timidly approached his father who stood by the chain-linked fence with his arms crossed.

"H-hi daddy," he smiled sheepishly.

"Young man, didn't Mrs. Margie tell you not to leave her yard?"

Spongebob looked down at his feet and shrugged.

"Spongebob..." Harold warned.

"Y-yes..."

Before the little sponge could blink his father had bent him over his knee and swatted his square backside at least three times. He cried loudly.

"Wait 'til your mother gets home," Harold warned as he lifted up his crying son and placed him in the backseat of the boatmobile. "Want me to give you guys a lift home, Marge?"

"Nope. I think a good punishment for Patrick would be for him to have to _walk all the way_ back home with me."

"No! Mommy, no!"

"Well you walked all the way here and you can walk back, mister."

"Carry me! I don't feel like it!"

"Nope." Marge grabbed her son's wrist and pulled him along down the side walk. "Bye Harold. I'm so sorry about all of this."

"That's alright, Marge." Harold got into his boat. He looked at his son in the rear-view mirror; he was still pouting. "_Hold your ground. He's got to learn,_" he told himself. He sighed. "I'm very disappointed in you, Spongebob."

There was no response from the child; just a sniffle.

Harold shook his head.

"I'm sorry, daddy," the child squeaked.

"It was wrong what you did," Harold scolded. "You scared me and Mrs. Margie."

"It was Patrick's idea!"

"That doesn't matter. You didn't have to listen to him."

Father and child were silent the rest of the way home.

Harold picked up his son and carried him into the house. He placed the sniffling and pouting child on the couch and then walked into the kitchen. Spongebob knew he was not to move; something was coming. Possibly a lecture or another whooping. He shuddered.

His father returned with a chair from the kitchen table. He placed it in the corner.

"Come here, kiddo."

Spongebob hesitantly met his father by the chair. Harold lifted him up and set him down in it.

"Stay here and think about what you did until your mother gets home. We will discuss this later, you understand?"

Spongebob nodded and then looked down at his feet in shame.

"Can't catch me, Spongebob!" the little starfish squealed.

"Yeah-huh! I have super-speed!" Spongebob refuted.

The boys chased each other around the yard, laughing until they could barely breathe. Spongebob finally caught up with Patrick, but before he could tag him, he found himself tumbling to the ground. Once he hit the ground, he looked behind him to see a rock embedded into the sand. He laughed.

"Oops!"

"Are you okay, buddy?" Patrick stood over top of him.

"Yeah I'm fine..." Spongebob reached out and tagged Patrick's foot. "...but you're not! You're it! Gotta catch me!" Spongebob stood up and prepared to run.

"Ugh, I hate running! Let's do something else."

"Sure. What do ya wanna do?"

"I don't know, but there's gotta be something better than tag. Fat kids don't run."

"Well...how about hide-n-seek?"

"With only two of us? That's no fun."

"Okay. How about leap frog?"

"Boring. I know! Let's go to the park!"

"But your mommy said we're not allowed to leave your yard."

"She won't know. We'll just go for a little while and come right back."

"I don't know, Patrick..."

"Oh, come on. It's just for a little while."

"My daddy told me I had to listen to your mommy. I don't wanna get in trouble..."

"You won't get in trouble, I promise. We'll back before she even knows we're gone."

"You sure?"

"Of course I am."

"Okay."

Patrick grabbed his friend's hand and took off in excitement.

"Woohoo! Let's go!"

The two walked down the sidewalk several blocks to the park. As soon as they got there they ran right to the swing set. They both found that their legs were too short to push off the ground.

"Darn! Push me, Spongebob. We can take turns."

"Okay!" Spongebob hopped off the high swing and attempted to push Patrick. "Ugh, you're really heavy." He barely moved his friend before the young starfish leaped off of the swing, causing the little sponge to fall flat on his face from the momentum.

"Hey look! The slide is free! Let's go!"

Spongebob shook off the fall. "Right behind ya!"

Spongebob stared at the corner of the wall, shaking his head.

"_Why did I listen to him?_" he asked himself. He turned to look at his father. He was watching the TV. It was some grown-up show that he could not understand. Harold looked up to see the remorseful set of blue eyes looking at him.

"Turn around, Bobby," he said. "You've still got some thinking to do."

Spongebob obeyed. He had seen a side of his father today he had never in his life seen before, and he was not about to bring that side out again.

The front door opened.

"I'm home!" Margaret's chipper voice rang out.

"Hello dear," Harold greeted her.

She entered the room to see her son sitting in the corner.

"Uhoh," she said, "Spongebob, did you get in trouble?"

Spongebob nodded. "Yeah..."

"You wanna tell your mommy what you did?" Harold reproached.

Spongebob hesitated. "I didn't listen to Mrs. Margie."

"You didn't listen? What did you do?" Margaret crouched down to be eye-level with her son.

"I went to the park..."

"And what were you not supposed to do?" Harold reproached once more, standing up and crossing his arms.

"...not leave the yard." Spongebob nervously played with his fingers.

Margaret made an exaggerated gasp. "Spongebob," she scolded. "Why would you do that?"

"And you scared daddy and Mrs. Margie to death!" Harold added approaching his wife and son. "I was scared you got taken by a stranger or something, and you could have been. Going off to the park by yourself, what were you thinking?"

Spongebob shrugged. "I'm sorry, daddy. I'm a bad boy."

"Oh you're not a bad boy, honey," Margaret stroked his head. "You're a good boy. That's why you can't be breaking rules like that. Good boys don't do that."

"I didn't want to. I told Patrick it was a bad idea..."

"Well you shouldn't have done it, then. Buddy, if you didn't go with him, then Patrick would have never gone either," Harold said.

"That's right, honey," Margaret agreed. "If you do the right thing, then Patrick will too. You gotta set a good example for others, you understand?"

Spongebob nodded.

With that, Harold lifted him up and wrapped him in a bear hug.

"I'm sorry I had to whoop you. I only did it because I love you and I want you to do the right thing."

Spongebob cuddled up to his father. "I love you too, daddy."


End file.
